Nintendo has said today that it expects to smash previous sales records, selling over 3 million Wiis in the US for the month of December.
The official numbers will hit on January 14th and the Wii sold 2.15 million consoles last December.
Additionally, the DS/DSi is expected to set another sales record as well, although the company did not give a figure.
“The millions of people who bought Nintendo hardware during the holidays can look forward to enjoying great games on those systems now and in the future,” added Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive VP of Sales & Marketing.“The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for Nintendo DS, and Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros Wii are all currently providing Nintendo fans with amazing experiences and fun adventures for the whole family.”
Result for: great games
ESA CEO Mike Gallagher has spoken out this week about both piracy and DRM in the gaming industry, and GamePolitics has made a nice summary of his remarks.
In regards to piracy:
“Piracy is a scourge. Piracy is theft, plain and simple, of the intellectual property and the creativity and the energy of the investors in this industry and the artists who make the great games. Period. Okay?”
“It’s a problem of such degree that it’s between two and three billion dollars a year that it costs our industry in this country alone. When you look at piracy across all of entertainment, it’s a much bigger number when you put in movies and look what it’s done to the music industry. So, the going-in proposition has to be a recognition that piracy is wrong, it’s illegal and it should be stopped…”
In regards to DRM:
“There are business models that say, ‘You know, we’re going to build our business model around giving it away for free and having the revenue come in in other ways.’ We [in the video game business] do that too. We do that too. But for those companies who go forward, they’re entitled to protect - using DRM - to protect their content. And I realize that it is a subject of some controversy with gamers and consumers because, like other similar types of devices, most often they negatively impact the law-abiding gamer.
“But it’s one of those things that we have to be vigilant about. It’s vitally important to preserve the ecosystem and the jobs in the industry and the next great game. If you don’t make money off of the games that are made now you’re not going to see the ones that come later like you saw at the press briefings already at E3.”
Result for: great games
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has noted that American fans hoping to get their hands on the newly released Nintendo DSi will have to wait until at least April 2009.
Fils-Aime also said he expect consumers to continue buying up DS Lite handhelds and hopes that they will choose to upgrade later.
“All through the Americas we continue to have great momentum on DS Lite and so for us we have a huge opportunity, much more consumers who want the original DS Lite, and so it will be for us a fantastic opportunity in our next fiscal,” noted Fils-Aime.
“The critical decision for those consumers is how long do you wait? We haven’t announced a launch date, and really for us it’s going to be in our next fiscal, so certainly, after April – that’s a long time to wait for a consumer who will be bypassing new titles like Chrono Trigger.
“We think most consumers are going to opt to jump into DS Lite now, enjoy all of the great games and then at some future point upgrade to the DSi.”
The president also added that DS Lite hardware sales had slowed in Japan and that the new launch should help boost lagging sales.
“It’s critically important in our Japanese home market that we announce and launch the new DSi.
“That’s because they’re reached such a huge level of penetration that this is a great way to keep driving momentum in their market.”
There was no word on a European release.
